summer

The countdown to Multiplay’s i49

Local Area Network (LAN) parties are where like-minded people get together to play games in the same location. The largest LAN is in the UK is the Insomnia Gaming Festival, or Iseries as it’s known. Fundamentally Insomnia is a gaming event for all ages, where gamers and industry leaders alike come together to celebrate games in all their forms. “Insomnia LAN Guide“

There are just 144 days left to go until the biggest UK gaming event this Summer, i49, hosted by Multiplay. I’ll be there along with some of the guys from computer club where we’ll be kicking back at the International Centre, located in Telford, Shropshire. The event hosts some of the biggest eSports tournaments in Europe and each year hosts the UK qualifiers for the World Cyber Games (WCG). As well as all that, you can team up for MMO or co-op gaming and generally play what you want when you want. I’m planning on positioning myself in the MMO area – I’ll be perfectly at home there! Alongside the gaming areas and competative tournaments, there are also exhibitions from industry specialists as well and Multiplay have put together a really good LAN guide to help you know what to expect when you arrive: http://static.multiplayuk.com/images/content/LAN_guide.pdf. You can also look forward to the Opening Ceremony and the famous Insomnia Pub Quiz. When you need to crash you have three options for hotels; two on-site (The Holiday Inn and The International) and one which is a five minute walk away (Grays Hotel), all of which are offering discounts for attendees. Alternatively you can camp – there is plenty of space available.

The event officially starts on Friday 23rd August and runs until Monday 26th August 2013, but for an additional £15.00 on your ticket price you can get early access to the venue so that you can get set-up in advance. This is what most people choose to do and so it’s quite busy on the Thursday when doors open at about 6pm, so you might consider leaving your arrival till a bit later to miss the initial rush. There are a number of different ticket types you can get to take part in the action depending on what you are after:

BYOC (Bring your own computer)
Tickets cost £64.40 for the entire weekend, game how you want when you want.

TUP (Turn up and play)
Tickets cost £55.00. This gets you entry for the entire weekend, just turn up, get ready for the tournaments and jump into your matches on one of the event machines.

Group BYOC or Group TUP tickets
If you’re booking for a community or a team.

You should check the website to see in detail what each of the passes confers to the holder, especially when it comes to the weekend and day passes. You may also want to note that if you want to play with your friends, but don’t have a rig of your own, you can purchase a BYOC ticket and then opt to hire one of the hire rigs available for the event – a standard rig will set you back £65.00 on top of the ticket price for the weekend, while a pro gamer package will cost you £75.00. You can also opt to hire a monitor, if you don’t fancy lugging your’s all the way to the event!

Multiplay have an amazing website that is dedicated to their gaming events and it literally has everything you need to know, check out the site at: http://iseries.multiplay.co.uk/i49. If you are planning to be there let us know, it would be great to meet up. Why not keep up-to-date with the latest news on this event via our Twitter feed @gamersblogbytes.